Chapter: Only one night...?

Doch Kratos was a little irritated by the offer of the young woman. However, she seemed to insist. "Kratos, Kratos, come, stay one night with us, please!", Said Sammy and looked with his light green eyes directly into the deer colored ones of Kratos. The other two had to laugh quietly, since they had only watched how the little one tried to persuade Kratos to stay. Since he had noticed that the bigger one hesitated a little, which was actually only due to the fact that he had not expected this offer. "I'm staying, but really only for one night, because I have to leave tomorrow, unfortunately," said Kratos after a brief hesitation in accepting the offer. Sammy stood there for a moment and didn't move when a twitch went through his body, he broke out in cheers and turned in circles for sheer joy. "Sammy! Now you're drifting over ...", his mother spoke to him, whereupon he stopped immediately and looked at her. "I'm going to play in my room," said the little one and went up the stairs that were to the left of the kitchen. "Um, I'm slowly giving up because I have to go back to Luin", Pia announces, went to the door, pulled it open and walked through it. "Bye, Annabell and Kratos!", She said goodbye before finally closing the door and going home. "Don't you want to sit down?", The light brown-haired woman asked hospitably and pointed to the corner bench that was to the right of the kitchen. Kratos nods and sits down. Annabell, however, went into the kitchen and prepared dinner there. "Can I offer you something to drink? Tea or coffee?", She asked him, "Um, just a glass of water", Kratos answered her. Annabell took a glass from the cupboard and poured some water out of a jug, also made of glass. With that she came out of the kitchen and put it in front of him. "Thank you," he said thanks for the drink. "Please," she smiles pleasantly and went back into the kitchen to finish cooking dinner.

While she was doing this, another person entered the house who only eyed the stranger suspiciously. "Annabell, who is this stranger there?" Asked a young man with dark brown hair and light green eyes. Annabell turns to the young man and recognized her husband, who had just returned from his work as a blacksmith. Since his forge was unfortunately in Luin, he had to take a dangerous journey every day! "Oh, Mike! This is Kratos! He caught our runaway again and brought it back," the young woman said quietly, knowing that her husband would not tolerate strangers in his house. However, his posture relaxed and he looked at Kratos, as the stranger was called on his corner seat, still suspicious but he seemed to come to the conclusion that the fawn-haired man posed no danger to his family. At least not at this moment! He was still on the lookout for Kratos, because you never knew whether you could trust a stranger or not. For the time being he would tolerate him, also because of his son, who must have met a fortunately good person. Mike closed the front door and went to the dining table, where Kratos was also sitting and looking at him. "You don't seem to trust me on the way," said the mercenary and let his gaze wander down as he noticed something about the glove of the dark brown-haired man. It was a round little object. When he realized what it was, he was startled, but didn't let it show. // An Exsphere! // he thought worriedly. On closer inspection of the Exspheres he noticed that it did not have a protective version.

However, he failed to tell him that the Exsphere was dangerous without a protective socket.Because it seemed as if he knew of the danger posed by the purple stone he was carrying. So he turned to his water glass and lifted it to take a sip. When he put it back on the table, he let his gaze wander around the room, where he became aware of a small fireplace that was on and gave pleasant warmth to the whole room. In front of the fireplace there was a cozy sitting area with very soft cushions and a cozy sofa cover. Also, the sitting area was a little lower than the rest of the floor. The same was true of the fireplace. Then he let his gaze wander around the room. Next to the front door to the left was a small chest of drawers that was used for shoes. There were coat hooks on the wall to the right. Jackets and cloaks hung on the hooks. Next to the stairs on the right was an ornate toy box that must have belonged to Sammy. Judging by the patterns on the box, Mike and Sammy should have painted it together, as the box had very clear lines and patterns on one side and looked very childlike on the other. A smile crossed Kratos' lips, but nobody saw it.

When a noise made him aware of Mike again, he has just got up from his seat and went into the kitchen, where Annabell was standing still preparing dinner. However, he only observed this out of the corner of his eye, as he hears soft footsteps that sounded like Sammy. They drew his attention to the stairs, where shortly afterwards Sammy appeared in his field of vision. He looked carefully at the kitchen in the hope that his father was there, as he had heard from above. When he saw the dark-haired man, a smile spreads on the little boy's face. However, he didn't seem to want to greet his father, knowing that his father heard him but wouldn't greet him back. Sammy thought that was stupid but there was nothing he could do about that, because his father was who he is. Why? He didn't know. So the little one sat down at his play box and opened it with the bowl that he always wore on a chain around his neck so that it wouldn't get lost. The nice thing about this box was that his father had given it to him for his birthday. But the best part was that he and Mike had painted them together. This very special day for him was a whole year ago. That day he had finally not had the feeling that his father didn't care about him as usual. He was mostly treated like air by his father and this condition hurt him, but his mom said that Mike was so around him protect. What or who he didn't know about. Only that his parents were often very tense when these strange people with the helmets and the pointed ears were outside. At least that was what he believed, because his father wasn't a danger to him, was he? Now the light brown-haired little boy was playing with his building blocks, which he also had a lot of fun with.

This scene briefly takes Kratos back in time, where he saw Lloyd play on the floor. A gentle short smile played around his lips when suddenly the image of the playing boy began to blur in front of his eyes and he found himself on this cliff. He only saw his little son screaming for his father, falling down the cliff and with him everything that was dear to him disappeared. The smile disappeared from his face immediately, a stab pierced his heart, whereupon he shook himself gently and returned to the here and now and saw Sammy again. His face shows only one feeling and that is guilt, yes, he blamed himself for the fate of his family all by himself.In the meantime, Sammy had become aware of Kratos' strange behavior, but did not speak to him yet, as it seemed as if he had to recover. Kratos, who had recovered himself, took a deep breath and noticed that his short daydream had not remained hidden, because their eyes met in the middle of the room. Suddenly the little one got up and went to him. "Kratos? Are you in pain or something? Because you are injured ...", the little one asked carefully, because Kratos was really injured, namely on his arm. The bandit leader had caught him there when he had parried the attack of the fat leader by a hair's breadth. Fortunately, the wound wasn't bleeding as badly as it was a few hours ago, but it was still bleeding a lot. Kratos knew about the wound on his arm, it also hurt slightly, but since he had planned to heal it, he didn't want to tell anyone about the wound, as the time until the wound would be closed in the normal wound healing process was too slow for him. In short, healing magic just went faster. "No, I haven't ..." he reassured the three-year-old and also shakes his head. With that he signaled to him that he didn't need to worry. However, the light green-eyed boy didn't really seem to buy that and instead went into the kitchen, where he fell over the small rise in the floor and was almost beheaded by his father's gun. But since Annabell had caught it with her leg and it was hanging only a few millimeters above the blade, nothing happened to him. The shock was written on his face. No wonder, since his head was only a few millimeters above the sword blade. The little one was very well aware of this. It was lucky that his mother had seen him enter the kitchen. "Ma-ma ... Papa wanted to kill me ...", the little one said fearfully and looked up at his mother, who was just being hugged by his father. The fact that Mike let go of his wife shortly afterwards had only one reason, as Annabell had said to him in faith for the hundredth time that he should please put his weapons in the armory, as the kitchen was a gun-free zone. That was her rule. That was her room and no weapons were supposed to be there. Unfortunately, he often forgot that and therefore there was often a small difference of opinion, which was quickly resolved.

But this time to avoid this disagreement, he first took his son off his mother's leg and stroked his head lovingly and gently shook his head. "No, I didn't want to kill you ... Unfortunately, I am easily forgetful about my weapons ... It was an accident and I am sorry that you almost died again", the elder apologizes to his son and smiles cautiously. He feels his wife's gaze, which shouldn't bode well. "And what do you do with your gun now?", She asked him shortly afterwards, slightly angry, because her husband was really so forgetful or because he did it on purpose to just leave his weapons in the kitchen. It was getting on her nerves that she had to tell him this at least three times a month and he